Sometimes good entrepreneurial advice comes in unexpected places. Lindsey Pollak’s Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to do before you join the real world is a guide for new graduates. But, here are some topics she covered that I thought were great for entrepreneurs of all ages:
- Minor in something majorly helpful (OK, too late for most of us to go back now, but somehow, my English major would’ve been helpd by a minor in economics or something, rather than history).
- Study China. If you haven’t figured this out, you might want to start.
- Be a winner. Chase down and get yourself nominated (or nominate yourself) for awards. Awards stay on your resume forever. And, everyone wants to work with a winner.
- Take every speaking/presentation opportunity that comes your way.
- Complete a physical challenge. Pollak notes that some of our country’s most successful people take their physical challenges just as seriously. I know I’m functioning at top capacity whenever I’m in the best physical shape.
- Perform five minutes of stand-up. It may be humbling but it’ll help with your speaking skills (and your sense of humor).
- Have a hobby. It’s a great way to meet people and also–all work and no play does make for a rather boring entrepreneur.
The Bottom Line: Good book to get for any college students in your life.
**Interesting stat from the book (which Pollak pulled from Entrepreneur magazine) = 71 percent of teenagers are interested in becoming entrepreneurs.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 3:56 pm and is filed under Nonfiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
August 26th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Interesting stat on the teenagers. I’d be curious to see the statistic of those people interested in becoming entrepreneurs evolve over time.
http://answers.nobosh.com/rss/index.cfm
September 3rd, 2007 at 10:02 am
More teenagers are becoming savy about economics. This book should be a required non-fiction in high school English classes. Its an easy read and it encourages readers to maintain a balance between personal and professional endeavors. That is important since so many kids think that you need to be a workaholic to maintain your own business.
September 4th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Thanks for the kind words, Julia. I agree that it’s important to show young people the realities of entrepreneurship. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to support Children of the City or share my book with your participants — I’m NYC-based.
Lindsey Pollak
http://lindseypollak.blogspot.com
January 16th, 2008 at 2:19 am
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